Journalist Who Helped Put KKK Members in Jail Discusses White Supremacy in 2016

“[I’ve] had my life threatened,” reporter Jerry Mitchell shared in a 2012 TED Talk, “but the gift I’ve gotten is to learn to live fearlessly.”

Yesterday, the MacArthur genius grant-winning journalist—whose investigative reports for The Clarion-Ledger helped put Ku Klux Klan members behind bars—stopped by Reddit for an AMA (Ask Me Anything). He answered users’ questions about the state of modern white supremacy groups in the digital age, as well as O.J. Simpson, the fate of journalism, and the scariest moment of his career.

For those unfamiliar with Mitchell’s work, the journalist supplied a TL;DR to get them up to speed:

“My specialty has been in investigating long-dormant murder cases, such as that of Ku Klux Klan member Byron de la Beckwith, who was tried twice in 1964 for the murder of NAACP leader Medgar Evers, both times ending in a hung jury. My work helped reopen the case and culminated in the conviction and life sentence of Beckwith in 1994.”

To read all of Mitchell’s answers to redditors’ questions, check out the original AMA thread. You can read his work on The Clarion-Ledger‘s blog “Journey to Justice.” According to Mitchell’s post, he is currently working on his memoir, entitled Race Against Time.